You won’t find D codes in the 2011 HCPCS Level II codes as you have in previous versions of some HCPCS Level II manuals and datasets. To avoid companies inadvertently including copyrighted dental codes as part of the royalty free HCPCS codeset, the American Dental Association removed the HCPCS D codes from the HCPCS Level II national codes dataset.

Unlike the rest of the HCPCS Level II codeset, the dental codes are subject to a royalty from the ADA. To display or print these codesets, the publisher must have a contract with the ADA and pay a royalty fee for the display rights. Free online codeset sites will no longer be able to offer the dental codes. Subscription web-based codesets will need to charge a nominal fee to display the D codes.